The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1887-03-10
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.

The streams penetrating the Gogebic
iron range near the south shore OF Lake
Superior are so black with discoloratlon
from the ore that fish cannot live in them.
This is particularly true of the Montrea!
River, the northern State line between
Wisconsin and Michigan.
Chemists are hard at work in the
French Antilles perfecting processes for
making alcohol from sweet potatoes
-Four gallons of alcohol can be madc
from go pounds of sweet potatoes. Por-
tions of the pine lands Of the Southern
States and part of New Jersey are also
we'll adapted to the growing of the
sweet potato.
At late meeting of the London Lin
mean Society was exhibited volume o:
ssHonzo Zufu" (''Illustrations and Brief
Descriptions of the Plants of Japan"l,
by Iwasatti Tsanemasa, which consists
of ninety-six volumes containing 10000
colored figures. The task of reproduc-
ton by native hand-labor is so great that
only two or three copies are known to
have been completed. ..
The fact has been satisfactorily estao
lished by various scientific researches,
that many substances absorb luminous
rays during the day, and at night emit
these rays in such manner as to impress
Photographic plates, although they may
nhot be perceptible to the unaided eye.
Artists have not only succeeded in pho
tographing the visible night phosphor-
escence OF Mont Blanc's summit, but
have even secured an impression of
midnight landscape-invislble to the eye
ON the terrace of the Observatory at
Prague.
A few years ago society of eminent
Frenchmen discussed this question:
.'What language would child naturally
speak if never taught" Twenty differ
ent results were predicted. To test the
matter two infants were procured and
kept isolated with deaf and dumb wo-
man, who lived alone in the Alps, sur
rounded by her sheep and chickens.
After six years the children and their
nurse were brought before the savants,
who were waiting in great expectation
as to the result, when. 10! not q word
could either of them utter, but most per-
fectly could they initiate the Growing OF
cock, the cackling of hen and the
bleating of sheep.
To facilitate the operation of plaster
ing, device has lately been invented,
termed q plasterer's platform, which Is
set on casters and may be elevated or
lowered to wall or ceiling as the conve-
nience of the workman may require. Ac-
companying this arrangement is an i'm
proved two-hand trowel, and the plat
form is capable of extension in a hori-
zontal as we'll as in vertical direction.
Thu, by the combined use of the two,
all cumbersome staging and the old-time
hod and the short single-handed trowel
are dispensed with. The mortar is placed
in an extensible trough, which is sus-
pended on the platform at point and IN
a manner convenient to Workmen; the
apparatus can readily be moved endwise
from room to room, and the cost OF lay
ing on either plaster or hard finish IS said
to be thus much reduced.
Rapid flowing waters seem more living
and healthful than those of sluggish
streams, but there is much illusion in
this appearance. If they get more ex-
posure to oxidation, they also get less
time for it. If the slow stream leaves
more organic deposit in its bed, it is be-
cause it has more time and reposc for
settling. and less force for carrying the
dirt with it. The bed of the swift stream
is clean at the expense Of cleanliness in
the water that scours just rs the washed
dish is cleaner than the dish water. The
only valid reason for preferring the water
of rapid stream, quantities being equal,
would be position more elevated and
less exposed to surface drainage. Engi-
neers calculate that the carrying power
o. water increases as the sixth power OF
the increase of velocity, so that stream
flowing six times as fast as another will
be able to transport A. times more
matter. Consequently, if pollution be
discharged into lively flowing stream,
it will have very little chance of being
dropped from the water at all.